My Best Friend Is An Android
by Skyflight Erek's Loyalty
Summary: - "Tess? There's something I need to tell you." I took a deep breath. "I- I'm not a human being. I'm an android." - Erek and Tessa have been best friends since preschool. What happens when she discovers his secret? AU, OC. COMPLETE!
1. First Day Of Preschool

Authoress's Note: Hi everyone, I'm Sky. This is my first Animorphs fanfiction, so... yeah. Basically, it takes place when Erek was pretending to be four years old, but that's just for the first four chapters. Then it skips ahead nine years to when he and his friend Tessa are in eighth grade. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE read and review! I love constructive critiscm, but please no flaming. Thanks! :D Enjoy!

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter One: First Day Of Preschool

_(Erek's POV)_

"Hello, everyone! My name is Miss Davidson!" The teacher's too-cheerful voice echoed throughout the room. "I just _know_ we're going to have an absolutely fantastic year together. I hope we can all be friends!"

I suppressed a sigh. This routine again.

Actually, this was the first time I had actually been to preschool. The last time I had been posing as a four-year-old was in 1946, and children didn't usually attend preschool then. But I had been to kindergarten, and the teachers acted the same.

"Now, children, I'm going to read you all a story. How does that sound?"

"YAY!!" the little kids exclaimed. I groaned silently to myself.

The teacher picked up a storybook with lots of colorful pictures. I set my hologram so that I would appear to be interested, and turned on the Chee-net. It's basically like a chat room. You can communicate with other Chee, even if they're not in the same building as you. Of course, when the Chee-net is on, you are oblivious to the real world.

I noticed that Chee-Kolee and Chee-Retep were both logged on. The two of them were my best friends. Kolee (whose human name was Lourdes) was currently posing as a homeless street person, and Retep (whose human name was Daniel) was currently posing as my father. Weird, huh?

By the way, my name's Chee-Shanos. You can call me Erek.

_Welcome to the Chee-net! You are currently in range to communicate in the ________, California thread. There are currently __3__ Chee logged onto this thread. Have a nice day!_

Chee-Shanos:_ help me! i'm being subjected to cruel and unusual torture!_

Chee-Kolee: _what's wrong?_

Chee-Retep: _erek is in school right now._

Chee-Shanos: _i'm being forced to listen to a storybook. and it's got lots of pictures!_

Chee-Kolee: _ha ha. what's it about?_

Chee-Shanos: _i_ _don't know. i didn't even wait to hear the first word. there was a  
picture of a rabbit on the front, though._

Chee-Kolee:_ well, at least you're actually in a building, with a roof over your  
head. i hate living in a cardboard box._

Chee-Retep: _hey, in your previous life you were an extremely rich movie star. it  
evens out. _

Chee-Kolee: _i guess._

Chee-Retep: _by the way, erek, do you happen to know whether or not we have any  
more milk left? _

Chee-Shanos: _i don't know and i really don't care. but if you're going to the store,  
get some more mountain dew, will ya? _

Chee-Retep: _you drink too much mountain dew as it is._

Chee-Shanos: _um, excuse me? i'm a chee. it's not like it's bad for me or anything._

Chee-Retep: _normal four-year-olds do not drink that much soda._

Chee-Shanos: _i'm not a four-year-old._

Chee-Kolee: _you've always acted like one. _

Chee-Shanos: _very funny, lourdes._

Chee-Retep: _well, you are pretending to be a four-year-old. so you need to act like one. we don't  
want people getting suspicious. _

Chee-Shanos: _yeah, yeah, whatever. you do a really good job of acting like a parent, daniel._

Chee-Retep: _um… thanks?_

Chee-Shanos: _that wasn't a compliment._

Chee-Kolee: _ugh. i said it before, but i absolutely hate living on the street._

Chee-Retep: _at least you don't have to go to work and have some human yelling at you all day to "finish those reports!" _

Chee-Shanos: _neither of you have it as bad as me. i have to pretend to be a four-year-old all the time. _

Chee-Kolee: _umm… no comment._

Chee-Shanos: _once again—very funny, lourdes. sorry, guys, i have to go now. i think the teacher  
is finishing up the book._

I turned off the Chee-net and the real world snapped back into focus.

"… and so the little bunny and his mother lived happily ever after, isn't that lovely. Wasn't that a nice story, everyone?"

This time I couldn't hold back my sigh. I had a feeling that it was going to be a long, long day.


	2. Fingerpainting As Fine Art

Authoress's Note: Hi again! Here's the second chapter. A big thank you to KityPryde and Riza-san for reviewing Chapter One! :) REVIEW EVERYONE!

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Two: Fingerpainting As Fine Art

_(Erek's POV)_

I looked around the room, bored. There were four-year-old kids everywhere—listening to stories on CD, coloring in coloring books, playing with pattern blocks, building towers of connecting PVC pipes, pretending to cook on the plastic toy stoves, playing with stuffed animals.

I sighed and wandered over to the fingerpainting table. I took out a clean piece of paper and plunged my hand into the can of red paint.

I don't care what you or Lourdes say, fingerpanting is _fun_.

I dipped my other hand into the blue paint and smeared both my hands on the paper. While I painted, I decided to think of all the good things and bad things about being in preschool.

_Pros—fingerpainting , no work, free cookies and milk at snacktime._

_Cons—storytime, being treated like a baby, listening to annoying preschool teacher, being forced to lie down and take a nap at naptime, being in the same room as other preschoolers who will just not shut up and stop singing that idiotic song, no access to any movie rated higher than G._

So far the cons were winning.

I was so preoccupied with thinking of this list (and, yes, maybe with the fingerpainting, too) that at first I didn't notice the little girl standing next to me. She had brown hair up in two pigtails that came to her shoulders. Her eyes were bright blue—like the color of the sky. I recognized her—she lived across the street from me.

As soon as I glanced up at her, she turned to me and smiled. "Hi! Guess what? I'm taking gymnastics!" she said brightly. "My mommy signed me up for it!"

_Umm… oookay._

She looked back down at my painting. Her big blue eyes were fixed on it with serious concentration and thought. The look on her face was almost like that of an art critic studying a masterpiece. She stared at it for a moment more before finally saying, "That's a good picture."

I looked down at it in surprise. It was just a bunch of multicolored blobs.

"Umm… thanks," I replied.

"You live across the street from me, right?" she asked.

"Yeah. My name's Erek."

She gave a big smile. "I'm Tessa."

Tessa sat down in the seat next to me and tapped the picture with one finger. "It looks like it's abstract art or something," she continued.

I jerked in surprise. "What?"

Where on Earth had she learned a word like abstract?

Tessa must have thought that I didn't know what the word meant. "Abstract means when a picture doesn't look like anything. When it looks like scribbleys and blobs," she explained, very seriously. "My mommy taught me that. She works at the art museum. She gets to decide which pictures they hang up."

Ah. So that explained the "art critic" look.

"Where does your mommy work?" Tessa asked me.

"I don't have a mom," I told her. "My dad works in one of those big buildings that are really tall." I had to talk like a four-year-old.

Tessa nodded, this vague explanation made perfect sense to her. "Did you like the story Miss Davidson read to us? I liked it, only I had already read it before. It's-"

"You mean your mommy read it to you?" I interrupted.

"No. I read it," she replied, with a touch of pride.

"You mean, you can read?"

"Yeah. Can't you?"

"No."

"Oh." She looked surprised. "Didn't your daddy teach you? Cause my mommy taught me. And Ben's parents taught him. And so did Maddie's parents."

Okay. Apparently, now, in this day and age, parents taught their kids how to read before preschool. How was I supposed to know? In the 40s, kids didn't learn how to read until kindergarten.

Great. Now I was stuck looking like the class idiot.

Tessa must have known what I was thinking, because she said, "It's okay if you don't know how to read. You'll probably learn how. I think you 'value the arts more than literature,' anyways."

I just stared at her. _Who was this kid?!_

She grinned. "That's what my mommy always says about me. Cause I can read, only I like drawing and stuff better."

She dunked her hand into the can of green paint and put a handprint on a new piece of paper. "Look! It looks sort of like if there was a broccoli factory that exploded!"

I just stared at her and shook my head. Tessa was one strange preschooler.


	3. TV Remotes And Bunny Rabbits

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Three: TV Remotes And Bunny Rabbits

_(Erek's POV)_

After a long, long morning of pretending to be interested in storybooks and block towers, I trudged home. The preschool was just up the street from my house, so I could walk home myself.

I pushed the door open. "Dad?"

No answer. He must be in the underground park.

I went into the kitchen and hung my painting on the fridge like any normal preschooler would do, then fixed myself a sandwich and flopped down on the living room couch, flipping through TV channels.

I heard the basement door open and close. A moment later, Daniel came in from the kitchen.

"I saw your painting," he said with a smirk. "It's very nice. Rivals the Mona Lisa itself."

"I know. I'm amazed at my own brilliance," I replied.

"What the heck _is_ it?"

"Your face," I answered automatically, still searching for something to watch.

He snatched the remote out of my hand. "How about this?" he suggested, turning it to Sesame Street. Then he quickly went upstairs, taking the remote with him.

Great. Now if I wanted to change the channel, I had to actually get up off the couch.

I sighed, stood up, and went upstairs. Daniel was working in the office.

"Where's the remote?" I demanded.

"Don't bother me, _son, _I'm working."

I sighed. "Fine."

I went back downstairs and turned off the TV. I slumped onto the couch. It was almost as boring here as it was in Miss Davidson's classroom.

Just then there was a knock at the door. I got up and opened it, then blinked in surprise. It was Tessa and her mother.

Tessa waved. "Hi, Erek!"

Her mom smiled warmly. "Hello, Erek. Is your father home?"

"Yeah. I'll go get him. Hold on."

I turned, went back upstairs (again), and entered the office.

Daniel sighed deeply. "Erek, I'm seriously trying to work here. I have to finish filling out this paperwork by tomorrow." He gestured to a huge stack of papers. "Look, here's the remote, take it and go."

"There's someone at the door," I said.

"Who?"

"The woman who lives across the street."

"Ms. McConnell? What does she want?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Dunno."

He sighed, got up, and went downstairs. I followed him.

Ms. McConnell smiled apologetically when she saw us. "I'm really, really sorry to bother you, Mr. King, but… you see, this problem came up at the museum… would you mind watching Tessa here for about an hour or so? And if you can't, it's really okay, I'm sure I can find someone else to-"

"No, no, it's all right. I'd be happy to help," replied Daniel.

Ms. McConnell gave him a grateful look. "Thank you _so_ much. I'd be willing to pay-"

"You don't have to pay me anything," interrupted Daniel.

"Really? Are you sure?" she asked anxiously. "Thank you!" She caught sight of her watch and made a little squeaking noise.

She turned to Tessa. "Tessa, you remember to use good manners and follow whatever rules Mr. King tells you, okay?"

"Okay. Bye, Mommy!"

Ms. McConnell handed Daniel a small piece of paper. "Here's my cell number. Call if there's any trouble. And thank you again! See you in a bit, Tessa."

She hurried across the street and into her car, then quickly drove off. She must have been late.

We looked at Tessa.

She smiled. "Hi!"

She skipped into the house and stopped in the middle of the living room. She looked around, then nodded. "You have a nice house, but it would look better if it were painted pink."

Daniel and I exchanged an amused look. "I'll take that into consideration," Daniel told her.

Just then, Molly, our little terrier puppy, ran up, begging to be petted.

"Ooh!" Tessa squealed, kneeling down to pet her. "You have a dog? You're lucky! Do you like dogs?"

"Yes, we like dogs," Daniel replied carefully.

"I like dogs too! Only my mommy says I'm not big enough to have a dog yet. But she says maybe, when I'm five, I can get a bunny rabbit! Like in the book today, Erek."

Daniel suddenly began coughing very loudly to cover his laughter.

I gave him a dirty look. "Shut up!" I hissed, too quietly for Tessa to hear.

"Aww, was it a good story, Erek? A good story, all about bunny rabbits?" he whispered back, still laughing. Luckily, Tessa didn't notice.

"What's the dog's name?" she asked.

"Molly," I answered.

"Does she play fetch?"

"Sometimes," I replied.

"Hey!" Tessa suddenly stood up. "Maybe I could teach you how to read! Isn't that a great idea?" She ran upstairs, probably looking for a book.

Daniel glanced at me. "Teach you how to read?"

"Um, don't ask."

"Okay."


	4. Best Friends

Authoress's Note: Thank you to KityPride, Riza-san, Purplestar Aslan's loyalty, and critic for reviewing! Here it is, guys. The last chapter for the preschool part. Personally, this chapter is one of my favorites in the whole book. It's just so cute! :) By the way, if you hadn't noticed this already, I'm updating this story on Sundays before church and on Wednesdays after school, so you can expect regular updates. Also, in this next chapter, **I am in no way implying that Lego blocks are only for preschoolers.** My cousin read it and he was all mad, saying, "Legos aren't just for preschoolers!" I was like, "Okay, okay! Calm down!" It was funny. :) So, just wanted to clear that up for all you Lego building people who may be reading this. Enjoy, everyone!

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Four: Best Friends

_(Erek's POV)_

"Hmm," said Tessa.

We were upstairs in my room. It was filled with the usual preschooler stuff—Lego blocks, Hot Wheels cars, toy spaceships.

Tessa turned to me. "Do you have any dolls?"

I gave her a strange look. "No."

She scowled. "Figures. Boys _never_ have any good toys."

She noticed a stack of paper on the small table I had against the wall. She grabbed a few sheets of paper and a box of crayons, then sat down on the floor. I sat down, too.

"First I need to teach you the alphabet." Tessa picked up a blue crayon and slowly, painstakingly wrote out the letters of the alphabet. Her letters were awkward and they sprawled across the page. Not all of them were facing in the right direction.

"This is A," she explained seriously, pointing to the letter A. "This is B. That's C. And there's D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z." She said the letters in kind of a sing-song way, like the way the alphabet song went. She pointed to each letter as she said it. "Now you try."

So I pointed to each letter and said what they were.

"Wow," Tessa said. "You learn fast. Hey! I'm bored. Let's go outside." She jumped up and ran downstairs. I wondered if she ever sat still for more than five minutes at a time.

When I got downstairs, Tessa was announcing, "I taught Erek how to say the whole alphabet!"

Daniel pretended to be shocked. "Wow! You must be a very good teacher, Tessa. I didn't think Erek would ever learn." He smirked.

I glared at him.

"Let's go outside," Tessa said again, walking towards the front door.

I followed her. As I walked past Daniel, I hissed, "You will seriously regret saying that."

I followed Tessa outside.

"So! What kind of stuff do you have out here?" Tessa asked. "Do you have a trampoline?"

"No, but we do have a swing."

I led the way around to the backyard, where we had a tire swing on a rope hanging from a tall tree.

"Ooh!" said Tessa, and ran over to it. "Cool!"

"See, here's what you do," I explained, climbing onto a stack of boxes, about three feet off the ground. "Hand me the swing." Tessa did. I pulled back, put one foot on the swing, and jumped.

It was a pretty good swing, actually. Since the boxes were so far back from the swing, it swung high and fast.

As I swung back, I dragged one foot on the ground to stop it. "You want to try?"

"Yeah!"

Tessa climbed onto the boxes. I handed her the swing. But instead of simply jumping, she twisted the swing as she leaped, so that it spun as it swung. And then, when the swing reached its highest point, she JUMPED OFF!

I rushed over to her. "Are you okay?" I demanded.

She laughed and sat up. "That was fun! I want to try again!"

"You shouldn't do that," I told her, still freaking out. "You could get hurt."

Tessa stood up. "You're a very serious little boy, did you know that? You're like a grown-up. It's like you don't know how to have fun." She smirked at me. "Or maybe you're just… scared."

Okay. That did it.

"I'm not scared," I informed her, and did the same insane leap she had.

"I bet you're not brave enough to this!" she replied, and did another crazy stunt.

"Oh, yeah?"

We kept at it for maybe a half hour, each trying to outdo the other with the sheer insanity of our stunts, until we collapsed on the ground, laughing.

And it was about that time that we heard the sound that was music to every four-year-old's ears—that little annoying tune that meant an ice cream truck was coming.

"ICE CREAM!" Tessa shrieked, and ran towards the truck. I tried to be more dignified, but—oh, what the heck. I raced after her towards the ice cream, skidding to a stop in front of the truck.

"Um—I want chocolate!" said Tessa breathlessly. "Please," she added, as an afterthought.

"Me too," I said.

The woman smiled as she handed us our ice creams. "That'll be one dollar."

"Umm…" I pulled a handful of coins out of my pocket, pretending I didn't know how to count money. The woman counted out four quarters and gave me back the rest.

"Thank you," I said politely, and Tessa and I walked back to my backyard. We sat down in the grass and finished our treats.

I looked at Tessa. She had ice cream all over her face. I didn't think she cared. I probably had ice cream all over _my_ face. I didn't care, either.

Tessa smiled. "This is fun," she said. "I'm glad you're my friend, Erek."

_Friend?_ I thought. We barely knew each other!

But then I realized that it didn't really matter. Not to a four-year-old. And I realized she was right.

"Yeah. Me too," I said.

"Hey! Bet you can't do this!"

Tessa jumped up to do yet another crazy stunt on the tire swing. And I thought back to what I had said to Daniel and Lourdes earlier, about how neither of them had it as bad as me.

I had been wrong. I had it the best of either of them.


	5. Those Newfangled Calculators

Authoress's Note: Hi guys! Thanks to KityPryde, Riza-san, and Purplestar Aslan's loyalty for the reviews! This chapter takes place nine years later, when Tessa is thirteen and Erek is... uh... pretending to be thirteen. :) In relevance to the Animorphs books, it takes place after book #27. By the way, the history teacher in this chapter is based after my history-freak friend, Purplestar Aslan's loyalty. I can _so_ see you acting like this when you're an adult, Purplestar, and you better review this one or else! :) Okay, people, read and hopefully review!

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Five: Those Newfangled Calculators

_- nine years later -_

_(Erek's POV)_

One good thing about being an android is that I have lived a really, really long time and have seen lots of things. It's challenging to pretend to be human. Yet, there are bad things about it, too. For example, having to sit through some boring eighth-grade history class, having to learn stuff I already know.

I mean, sometimes it's interesting, hearing about things I lived through from the point of view of someone who to them those things happened lifetimes ago. But most of the time, like today, it's just plain exasperating.

"And so," lectured Ms. Olsen. "As you learned last year, President Hoover had done a horrible job of helping the country come back from the Depression. Many Americans blamed him for their problems. So that's why they elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt!"

Ms. Olsen is one of those teachers who gets very excited about what she teaches. A history freak, you might say. Whenever she talks about something particularly patriotic, like Patrick Henry's speech, or Manifest Destiny, she stands up on her desk and flings her arms dramatically while she speaks.

"President Roosevelt was a great man," she continued, her voice shaking with emotion. "He invented a series of plans to help America. And he decided to call his plans the New Deal!"

I growled slightly under my breath. _I was the one who thought of the name New Deal!_

Tessa, who was sitting in front of me, turned around. "What?" she whispered.

"What?"

"You just growled under your breath."

"Umm… no, no I didn't. You must have been hearing things," I said nervously.

She gave me a strange look and turned back around.

Tessa, now thirteen, was my best friend. She still wore her hair in two pigtails and she still 'valued the arts more than literature'- although now she preferred music to painting. In fact, she was currently trying to convince me and two of our other friends to join her 'band' (which currently had only one member- her).

Just then, Ms. Olsen announced that we had a test tomorrow, so be sure to study everything from the Declaration of Independence to the Great Depression.

Everyone groaned.

"All right, class, let's review," Ms. Olsen said. "Who was the sixteenth president of the United States?" Before anyone even had time to answer, she shouted, "Lincoln! LINCOLN! Abraham Lincoln!"

"Oh, really? I didn't know that," I muttered sarcastically.

Tessa gave me another weird look.

"What?" I demanded. "Do you have something against people who make strange comments under their breath? Is that it? Huh?"

"Uh... no. I guess not?" Tessa said, confused.

"Good. Then turn around and start taking notes."

"Erek... what did you put in your orange juice this morning?"

"Actually, I prefer coffee," I informed her.

"And exactly how much coffee have you had today?"

I decided to ignore her.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Last period- math class. With the infamous Ms. Smith, the ugliest, meanest teacher in the school. She's so fat, she has to ride around in one of those scooter things, and her face, it's just- ugh.

Anyways, today she was lecturing us on the importance of doing math without a calculator. And she was smacking on gum while she was doing it. (Apparently, she's the _only_ one allowed to chew gum in class.)

"So, you see, class," Ms. Smith sneered, in her whiny monotone. "You can't be reliant on those (smack, smack) newfangled _calculators_ to do your work for you. I know-" She grinned evilly, exposing her chipped, yellow teeth. "I'll ask you all a question. No calculators. If nobody can (smack, smack) answer it correctly, you will all have silent lunch for a week. But if even one of you (smack, smack) can answer it correctly, I will let you all bring in your newfangled video games to play in class tomorrow."

Now, you may think Ms. Smith was being nice by saying that. She wasn't. The problem was probably going to be impossible, and then she'd have an 'excuse' for giving us silent lunch. Typical Ms. Smith behavior.

She rattled out a long string of numbers and letters and operations. "Now, (smack, smack) what does _x_ equal?"

I couldn't resist. "Ma'am? _X_ equals 1,364(q+2)."

Everyone stared at me.

Ms. Smith looked down at her paper, then she stared at me, too, with her hollow, expressionless gaze. "That- that's correct."

"How on Earth did you do that?" Tessa whispered.

"Hey, you have to let us bring in games tomorrow. You said!" shouted some kid sitting up in the second row.

"SILENCE!" shrieked Ms. Smith. "I will do whatever I please, as this is _my_ classroom!" She turned to me. "And you, Erek King. _You_ will stay after school today."

"But all I did was answer-"

"SILENCE!"


	6. Tylenol

Authoress's Note: Thanks to KityPryde, Purplestar, and Riza-san for reviewing. And now the news. Today we have a NEW POINT OF VIEW, everyone! From now on, the point of view will alternate between Erek and Tessa. So review and tell me how you like the change. Also, since I am going on a camping trip this weekend, I probably will not get Chapter Seven up until Sunday evening or Monday. I'm sorry, because this chapter ends at a very suspenseful part... but, oh well. I promise you it will be up by Monday at least, though. Okay, that's all the news for today. :) Enjoy, and review!

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Six: Tylenol

_(Tessa's POV)_

Later that day, after math class, I was walking home from school, wondering what kind of horrible torture Erek was suffering from at the hands of Mrs. Smith.

Then I heard a familiar voice behind me. "Hey, Tess, wait up!"

I turned around to see Erek running to catch up with me, lugging three textbooks in his arms plus his oversized backpack.

I smirked. "What'd she give you? Detention? Pink slip?"

He shifted the books to one arm, brushed his hair out of his eyes, and grinned. "Neither. She was so obviously dying to punish me for something, but I told her I hadn't done anything wrong. She finally realized she was fighting a losing battle, trying to send me to the office, so she just gave me a bunch of extra homework. From three different textbooks." Erek sighed. "Plus the history book we need to study for that test tomorrow, and the grammar book for our English homework."

"Ha-ha," I teased. "Hey, how did you get that problem right, anyways? It was like practically impossible to do, without a calculator, at least."

"Oh, I, um, well, I did use a calculator. I had one in my desk," Erek said. He sounded nervous, as if it were an excuse he were trying to pass off for the truth.

"Ah," I replied, and shook myself. What did I mean, an excuse? It was the only possible explanation. He probably hadn't gotten enough sleep last night or something, I decided. That must be why he sounded so strange and why he was acting so weird in history class.

"So, do you want to go skateboarding later? Maybe we could stop at the mall, get some ice cream or something, and then study for the history test?" I asked.

"Sure," he replied. "Let me go put all this school stuff inside." He began to cross the street to his house.

And that's when it happened.

A battered old car came swerving suddenly around the corner. There were a bunch of college kids piled into it, obviously drunk. It sped up, straight towards Erek. He didn't have time to move out of the way as it rammed into him. THUNK! I heard the sickening sound of the collision.

Now that I think about it, it _did_ sound more like metal against metal than metal against flesh. But, of course, at the time I was more concerned about Erek than the sound of a car crash.

As the car hit him, I thought for a moment I saw him disappear and his place taken by something silver-colored. But it was only for an instant and then Erek was back. I figured it was just my eyes playing tricks on me.

"Omigosh! Omigosh! Omigosh!" I rushed over to him. The car quickly sped off.

To my shock and amazement, Erek groaned and STOOD UP. "Idiots," he muttered. Then he saw me. His eyes widened, he opened his mouth as if he were going to say something, then closed it and fell back onto the street, obviously pretending to be unconscious.

I dragged him to the sidewalk as best I could while practically having a heart attack. "Come on, Erek. I know you're not unconscious. Wake up!"

He blinked his green eyes open, trying to act like he had just come to. "Oh. Hi, Tessa. Wow, that was really lucky. That car could have killed me, but, uh, I think I'm fine, I'll just, you know, go take some Tylenol? For my headache?" He sounded flustered. "I mean, um-" He stood up.

"No, Erek!" I protested. "You need to stay still until I can call 911!"

"What? What are you talking about?" Erek said.

"Hello? You just got hit by a car!" A horrible thought crossed my mind. "Oh no! Maybe you've got amnesia!"

"NO!" he shouted. "I mean, I'm fine, really, I'll just go take some Tylenol, maybe lie down for a bit?"

I took his wrist and checked for a pulse. I couldn't find one. "Omigosh you don't have a pulse! This is even more serious than I thought! What if you're having some kind of heart attack or something?!"

I gently pulled him towards my house so that he could sit down and I could call 911.

He pulled away. "I'm okay!"

"No, you're not!"

"Yes, I am!"

"No, you're not!"

We stared at each other for a moment. I felt a shiver run through my body. I was scared and confused.

"Erek, what happened? When you got hit, for a moment there, it's like you weren't there for a second. I could see something that looked like steel lying in the road. And then you were back."

I looked at him, hoping he could give me a perfectly rational explanation- both for what I had just said and for how he somehow appeared to be unhurt. Or better yet, that this was all some horrible dream that I would wake up from any minute now.

Erek stared at me in horror.

"What?" I asked.

"Tess, I'm really, really, sorry, but you need to come with me," he said. He grabbed my arm and started running. He was strong. Stronger than I would have thought. I had to follow.


	7. Discovery

Authoress's Note: Thank you to Riza-san, KityPryde, and Purplestar for reviewing. (as usual) I mean, don't get me wrong, guys, I really appreciate your reviews, but it seems like it's just you three almost every single time. I wish I had more reviewers... oh well, anyways, here's Chapter Seven. I'm sorry for the cliff hanger at the end of the last one. Everyone was like "Gasp! No, not a cliff hanger!" The end of this chapter is sort of a cliff hanger, too. Sorry. Speaking of cliff hangers, did anyone ever watch the TV show Between The Lions when you were little? You know how they'd be like "Cliff Hanger! Hanging from a cliff! And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger!" I just thought of that for some odd reason. Sorry for the random outburst. :) I get hyper when I haven't gotten enough sleep. Enjoy! :D

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Seven: Discovery

_(Erek's POV)_

I ran across the street, pulling Tessa along with me. She stopped still on the sidewalk in front of my house.

"Erek, where are you going?" she demanded.

"My house. Come on!"

"No! I need to call 911!"

She had planted her feet firmly on the sidewalk. I couldn't pull her without hurting her.

"Sorry," I said again, and I picked her up and ran into the house.

"Erek! How are you doing this?" she cried.

We went upstairs to my room and shut the door. Daniel was still at work.

I paced back and forth, wondering what to do. She had seen the real me. I mean, come on. I was hit by a car. Can you really blame me for dropping the hologram for a split second?

Even as I thought this to myself, I knew that when the other Chee found out about this, I would be in _so_ much trouble.

I should have pretended to be hurt. Then Tessa would have called 911. When the Chee there heard my name, they would have arranged everything so that Chee disguised as paramedics would come, I would be taken to the hospital, eventually 'recover,' and no one would have to find out about the Chee. But I had panicked, pretending to somehow not be hurt. Now Tessa would have to find out that I was an android.

But what if she was a Controller? I didn't _think_ she was. Being a member of the inner Sharing, I knew the names of almost all the Controllers in Palm Springs. But you could never be sure.

"EREK!"

I realized Tessa had been trying to get my attention. I looked at her. She was crying.

I felt instantly guilty. Tessa was scared, confused, and she thought her best friend was dying, and I was worried about how much trouble I'd be in?!

"Really, Tessa. You don't have to worry. I'm perfectly okay," I said in an almost-too-calm voice.

"You say that!" she shrieked hysterically. "But what if you have internal bleeding, or there's something wrong and you can't feel that you're in pain? Regardless of that, YOU. DON'T. HAVE. A. PULSE! There's obviously something wrong with you!" She held up three fingers. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

I suppressed a sigh. "Three. Are you hungry? Do you want a snack or something? We have milk and Oreos."

She stared at me. "What?"

"Oreos. You know, the-"

"I know what they are. This is no time to be thinking about Oreos, Erek!"

"Of course it is. Any time is a time to be thinking about Oreos. If you're hungry. Which brings us back to the first question. Are you hungry?"

She burst out in fresh tears. She probably thought I had gone crazy.

I went downstairs, poured two glasses of milk, and grabbed a pack of Oreos. I went back upstairs, handed her a snack, and plunked down in a chair.

Tessa wiped her eyes. "Okay, Erek, you're obviously delirious or something. We need to-"

I interrupted her. "Tess? There's something I need to tell you." I took a deep breath. "I- I'm not a human being. I'm an android."

She stared at me. "An android. Oh, of course. Whatever you say."

She slowly stood up and reached for my cell phone on my desk, probably to call 911.

Or the loony bin.

I stopped her. "No, Tessa. I'm not insane. Seriously. What you see, when you look at me, that's just a hologram. When I turn it off- look." I turned off my hologram to show my true self.

Tessa's eyes flew open and she stumbled back and fell to the ground. She opened her mouth to scream but I clamped my hands over it.

"Shhh!"

She jerked back away from me and crawled backwards, pressing herself against the wall. "What… what… how?" she managed to choke out.

"It's okay," I assured her. "I'm not going to hurt you. I couldn't, anyways."

So I told her everything. Well, not quite everything. I told her all about the Pemalites. How advanced they were, how kind they were. I told her how they had created the Chee. And then I told her about the Howlers. How a few hundred Pemalites and a few hundred Chee had escaped. And how then, the Pemalites became sick. I told her how we had landed on Earth, how we had put the essence of the Pemalites into wolves, and how we, the Chee, had passed as humans ever since. I told her about the underground park and the Chee-net. And I told her that I had helped build the pyramids and coined the phrase 'the New Deal.'

But I didn't tell her about the Yeerk invasion or the Animorphs. I decided that the Animorphs themselves would be better at telling about that. And I didn't tell about when I had been released from my nonviolent programming. Partly because she would have to know about the Animorphs, and partly because… I guess, I sort of subconsciously thought that maybe, if she knew what I had done, she wouldn't want to be my friend anymore.

But anyways, when I finished, I looked at Tessa, expecting her to say something. But she just stared at me with shock in her eyes and her mouth hanging open.

I waved my hand in front of her face. "Um- if you can hear me, can you just, like, nod your head, or say something, anything?"

Tessa closed her mouth, stood up, and backed out of the room slowly. On her way down, Meg, my black lab, ran up to her, wagging her tail.

Tessa looked at her, scared, and ran out of the house.


	8. Sarcasm And Sweetness

Authoress's Note: Thank you to Riza-san, KityPryde, Purplestar, and a NEW REVIEWER, The Gandhara, for your reviews. You know how I said last Wednesday that I might get the next chapter up late cause my family and I were going camping? And then it rained and we didn't go? Well, now we're going camping _this_ weekend. So now if the weather's good, I might get Chapter Nine up a bit late. At least this time it's not a cliffhanger. (Cliff Hanger! Hanging from a cliff! AND THAT'S WHY HE'S CALLED CLIFF HANGER!) Ergh! Sorry. I think my two-year-old brother is a bad influence on me... :D Anyways, this chapter is another one of my favorites. I think it's cute. Enjoy! :D

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Eight: Sarcasm and Sweetness

_(Tessa's POV)_

I sat in the tree for a while, just thinking. It was a great tree. I could climb up it, about six feet off the ground, and there was a nice branch to sit and think. In the summer, like now, in early September, when it was covered with leaves, no one could even see me if I was in it. And I needed to be alone to think.

I mean, first I had seen my best friend get hit by a car. Then he had acted as if he were perfectly fine, even though he had no pulse. Then suddenly he picked me up and started running, which would have been pretty hard for a human of his size. He had taken me to his room and started babbling about Oreos. I thought he was insane.

Then, he tells me he's not human. And before my very eyes, the Erek I had thought I had known since preschool disappears and an android is standing there. He tells me some crazy story about robots and aliens and Egyptian pyramids and dogs.

Oh yeah, I was freaked out.

"Tess? You up there?"

I peered through the leaves. It was Erek. I silently cursed myself for choosing the tree in my front yard. Erek knew I went there a lot, and I really needed to be alone.

I swung down from the tree- and fell on top of Erek.

"Thanks a lot," he said sarcastically.

I stood up. "That didn't hurt," I snorted. "If getting hit by a _car_ didn't hurt you, no way I did." I paused. "Sorry. I didn't mean to. I swear."

I helped him to his feet, and then climbed back into the tree. He followed me.

I sighed. "What?"

"You're really shocked, aren't you?" he asked.

"No, you think?" I said in a false-sweet, sarcastic tone of voice. "Well, I just found out my former best friend isn't human! He's an android that's thousands of years old!"

Erek flinched. "Former?"

I bit my lip. "I didn't mean that."

We sat in silence for a moment or two.

"I'm just really shocked, that's all. You said it. I'm just really shocked," I said finally. "Erek, how could you keep this kind of secret? How could you go on with your life, pretending to be a normal eighth-grader? How can you walk home from school, casually chatting about evil teachers and schoolwork?"

I looked at him suspiciously. "Have you been silently laughing at me all these years when I haven't understood something in math? Have you been thinking what a moron I am because I'm not as advanced as you mighty androids?"

Erek looked at me, shock on his holographic face. "No! Tessa, you don't understand. You're acting like I'm some completely different person now. And you're _afraid_ of me."

"I'm not afraid of you," I replied automatically.

"Yes, you are. I can see it in your face."

I looked away. Okay, so maybe I was a bit scared of him, at the moment. I mean, come on. Who wouldn't be scared if they found out their best friend is an alien robot who is, like, four times stronger than the strongest human and can run so fast that he looks like a blur? I wasn't completely sure about the whole 'nonviolence' thing.

Erek took my silence as an indication to go on. "You're acting like I changed once you found out I'm a Chee. I have always been a Chee. You just found out something about me that you didn't know before."

"What is this, sharing time in preschool?" I said mockingly. " 'Kids, please share something with the class that they may not have known about you.' 'Oh, I'm an android! And guess what else? My dogs, they're the ones who built me, thousands and thousands of years ago!' Yeah, that's real nice, Erek."

A smile flickered across his face for an instant. But then he sighed. "No, Tess," he said patiently. "Not dogs, exactly. The-"

"Whatever," I cut him off.

More awkward silence. I thought about what he had said earlier, about him being the same person.

And you know, the more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. I mean, Erek was my best friend. He had put up with my crazy tendency to become obsessed with certain music and listen to it nonstop. He had been there to offer a shoulder to cry on when my grandpa died. He had been happy for me when I had finally reached black belt level in tae kwon do. He had given me a hug when I had fallen out of a tree, scraped up my leg, and cried, when I was six years old. He had taught me how to divide back in the third grade when I hadn't understood. He had even once faked a seizure to distract the teacher so that I could escape after-school detention. I mean, so what if he was an android? He was still the same Erek.

Erek took a deep breath and said, "Tessa, since you were my former best friend, I need you to not-"

"Now who's saying 'former?'"

He looked surprised. "You mean you still want to be friends after all this? Tess, I've known you for nine years now. I can tell when you're mad. And you are _extremely_ mad right now."

I looked sideways at him. "Of course I'm mad, Erek. I'm furious. But… I may consider forgiving you one of these days if you still want to go skateboarding."

He pretended to think about it for a moment. "Deal."

We jumped down out of the tree and got our skateboards. Erek picked up his books and our backpacks, which were still lying in the middle of the street.

"So… exactly how old are you, anyways?" I asked as we headed for the mall.

"14,363 since August," he replied with a smile.

"Wow. And to think I thought you were thirteen."

"I helped build the pyramids, you know," he said with pride.

"Yes, you mentioned it earlier. Great work. And let me guess, modesty is your best quality?"

"Of course."

We both laughed.


	9. Still The Same

Authoress's Note: Hi everyone! I got back from my camping trip early enough to post this, so YAY! Anyways... thank you to critic, KityPryde, dogman15, Riza-san, o0Kaylee0o, Nicole Starre, and Purplestar Aslan's loyalty for reviewing! Wow, that's the most reviews I've gotten on any chapter so far. Thanks guys! In this chapter, Erek mentions the other Chee living in Palm Springs. Jenny, Lourdes, Maria, and Daniel are not mine. (Except I made up Daniel's first name.) Erek, sadly, is not mine, either. :( Nick, Sami, and Michael are Chee that I made up. Okay, just wanted to clear that up. Read and review!

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Nine: Still The Same

_(Erek's POV)_

"Two sundaes, please," I said.

"Hot fudge or caramel?" the girl at the counter asked.

"One of each," I replied. I handed Tessa the caramel one. Caramel was her favorite. We sat down in the food court, at a table apart from everyone else.

I took a bite of sundae and noticed Tessa staring at me. "What?"

She shook herself. "Nothing… do androids need to eat?"

"We don't _need_ to. But we can."

"Oh. Okay." She paused for a moment. "So, your dad. He's not really your dad, then?"

I shook my head. "No. He's a Chee."

"And then… your cousin Jenny is, too?"

"Yeah."

"How many _are_ there here?" Tessa asked.

"In Palm Springs? Just me, my dad, Jenny, her parents Nick and Sami, her brother Michael, my grandmother Maria, and a street person named Lourdes."

"Oh." Tessa looked down at her ice cream.

I could tell she was desperately trying to act normal, but she was failing. I didn't really blame her. I mean, she had really been through a lot of shock.

I tried to imagine what it must have been like. I pictured Tessa being hit by a car. Oh yes, I would definitely be freaking out.

I pictured her just getting up and seeming perfectly fine, but acting like she'd gone crazy. Oh yes, that would be scary beyond all reason.

And I pictured her telling me that she was secretly… uh… I don't know… secretly… an Andalite.

That would just be plain weird.

Okay, so I couldn't really imagine exactly what she was going through, but I had a pretty good idea.

"Tessa?"

"Yeah?" she answered.

"I'm really, really, sorry."

"For what?" Tessa asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"For today," I replied. "I should have been more careful. Maybe then I wouldn't have been hit by that car. And none of this would have happened. You shouldn't have had to do through all this."

"No, I'm actually _glad_ that this happened," Tessa said.

I stared at her. "What? Why?"

"Because. Now I know your secret. You don't have to hide it from me anymore, " she replied. "Is there anything else you're not telling me?"

"Well… there _is_ more you should know about. But I'm not the right person to tell you about that," I told her, referring to the Yeerk invasion and the Animorphs. I paused for a moment, then added guiltily, "And I borrowed five bucks from you last week without asking."

"Ah, so _that's _where it went," Tessa said with a laugh. She held out her hand. I sighed, fished around in my pocket for a five, and gave it to her.

"Seriously though, Tess, I'm sorry," I continued. "I completely panicked. I didn't explain much of anything at first. I'm sorry you got so scared and freaked out."

"Scared?! Freaked out?!" she protested. "I was _not_." She sniffed indignantly.

I smiled. Tessa was extremely stubborn. "Okay, okay. Whatever you say, Tessa."

We were quiet for a while as we ate our sundaes. Suddenly, Tessa burst out laughing.

I jerked in surprise. "What? What's so funny?" I wanted to know.

She shook her head a little. "Just that this all makes perfect sense, you know? I seriously should have expected this."

I must have looked confused.

"It explains a lot of things. Like why you hated storytime back when we were in preschool. And how you got that problem right in math earlier."

"I probably shouldn't have done that," I said sheepishly. "Shouldn't have attracted unwanted attention."

"Yeah, but you saved us from silent lunch for a week," Tessa pointed out.

I shrugged. "True."

"And," Tessa continued, "it also explains all your weird comments in history class."

"Do I really say that many odd things in class?" I asked.

She nodded energetically. "Yeah… you kind of do. Like you sometimes start cracking up laughing for no apparent reason. Or you glare and mutter to yourself. And sometimes, when Ms. Olsen is proclaiming the greatness of one of the presidents, you'll say something like, 'He wasn't as great as everyone makes him out to be.'"

I shrugged and smiled.

"And… the seizure incident."

We both burst out in laughter. Unfortunately, I had been taking a bite of ice cream at the moment, and I choked. This only made us laugh harder.

'The seizure incident,' as we now referred to it, was a time when Tessa had been sent to after-school detention for listening to her iPod in the hall between classes. But her gymnastics class was that afternoon. So, being the good friend that I am, I pretended to be having a seizure. The teacher had freaked and ran for the nurse, leaving the door open. By the time they returned, we were long gone.

After we had calmed down and stopped laughing, Tessa said, "Erek? We're friends, aren't we?"

"Yeah. Of course," I replied.

"I mean, you were right, what you said before. You're still the same Erek. And we're still laughing and joking just like before. Our friendship is still the same."

I smiled. "Still the same."


	10. My Best Friend Is An Android

Authoress's Note: Thank you to Riza-san, KityPryde, and Purplestar for your reviews. Okay, everyone, this is the last cute little friendship chapter. I know chapters Eight, Nine, and Ten have been sort of slow, with not much exciting stuff happening. ( Although they are adorable! :D ) Anyways, this chapter has the same name as the book title. You'll see why once you read it. Enjoy! :D

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Ten: My Best Friend Is An Android

_(Tessa's POV)_

The sun was just beginning to set as Erek and I skated back to his house. Streaks of orange and pink spread across the sky. We stopped to gaze at it for a moment.

"Earth is a very, very cool place," Erek said.

I turned to look at him. "Did… did Pema have sunsets?"

"Yeah. Beautiful ones," he said wistfully. "We had two suns, a golden one four times the size of Earth's sun and a smaller red one. Sometimes, when there was really nice weather, we would sit outside and watch the suns setting…" He trailed off and swallowed hard. "But Earth is really nice, too." He smiled at me and quickly changed the subject. "So, you were saying, earlier…?"

"Oh, yeah. Well, you being an android also explains why you're so _good_ at everything," I continued. "Like, you always get all A's in school. And you can do really hard tricks on your skateboard without even trying. And you're totally great playing the drums. Which is why you should _so _be in my band."

Erek smiled and shook his head. He was trying to be modest- but it wasn't working.

"And it explains your little ego problem."

"What? I don't have an ego problem!" he protested.

I gave him a look. "Yes, you do. I mean, if I could do half the stuff you can, I'd probably act conceited sometimes, too."

I grinned at him. I was just messing with him. I knew that the more I said how awesome he was, the more he'd try (and fail) to be modest. And then I could tease him more!

"Oh, shut up," Erek said good-naturedly. We laughed.

"Hey, Tess?" Erek began. "You know what you said earlier, about us still being friends? It's really cool of you to do that."

I laughed. "Yeah, well, it was really weird at first. I'm not sure I'm even completely used to the idea of you being an android yet. But it's also pretty cool. I mean, how many people have an android for a best friend?"

"Probably hundreds," Erek replied dryly.

"Well, yeah. But they don't know that their friends are androids, do they? How many people know about the Chee?"

"Only you, and a group of six, humans and… other species. You can meet them tomorrow, if you want to."

_Other species?_

I decided not to ask.

"Well, anyways, it's also pretty cool. I mean, now that it's not so much of a shock. Now that I know that you're an android, think of how much better things will be. You can be in my band. I bet you're even better playing the drums then you let on. And you can help me during history. You won't be able to pretend you don't know an answer when I ask you anymore."

Erek shook his head with a smile. "I'm not going to help you cheat on your history test, Tessa. Sorry."

We reached Erek's house and went up to his room.

"Oops," I said.

The milk and cookies Erek had given me were spilled all over the floor from when I had jumped back in shock. I had crashed into his shelf and a few CDs had fallen down into the milk puddle.

"Oh, well. I'll clean it up later," Erek said breezily.

So we took out our history books and began studying for the test. It was actually much easier and (I know, shoot me) a lot of fun. _Only_ because Erek told me a bunch of interesting and funny stories that made it much easier to remember. That was the only reason. I'm not trying to say that I think reading history textbooks is fun or anything, cause I definitely don't.

After a while it started to get late, so Erek and I said goodbye and I went home. I lay down on my bed so I could think.

Obviously, it had been a very eventful and life-changing day. Just this morning, I had been Tessa McConnell, average eighth-grader. I had had a best friend named Erek King, just a normal kid who lived across the street. I hadn't believed in aliens and I had thought that intelligent robots were only in _Star Wars. _

Now I was Tessa McConnell, average eighth-grader. I had a best friend named Erek King, an android. Now I believed in aliens and had proof of intelligent robots right across the street.

I thought about this for a moment.

_My best friend is an android._

Hmm. That would make a good title for a movie, or at least a book. Too bad the only thing I could write was music. Maybe someday I'd get someone to write it for me.

I sighed, stood up, and went outside. My dog, a border collie named Coco, ran up to me, a Frisbee in her mouth. She wagged her tail happily.

Now, ordinarily I would have said something like, "Not now, Coco. It's getting late, and I should probably start on my English homework."

But now, I looked at her, at her happy, bright doggy face, and I thought of the Pemalites. I smiled and knelt down.

"You want to play?" I asked. I took the Frisbee and threw it across the yard.

Coco barked, wagged her tail, and ran after it.


	11. Dominos

Authoress's Note: Thanks to Purplestar, Riza-san, KityPryde, critic, and Maj Enn for reviewing. Here's Chapter Eleven. By the way, if you didn't read the Authoress's Note in Chapter Five, this story takes place just after #27. Also, I didn't mention this earlier, but this story is AU because in this universe, David never found the morphing cube and became an Animorph. So the Animorphs still think that the morphing cube was destroyed along with Elfangor's fighter, and there was never a sixth Animorph. Just keep that in mind as you read this story. :D Enjoy!

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Eleven: Dominos

_(Erek's POV)_

"Hi, Erek!"

I looked up to see Tessa sitting down across from me. It was the next day at school.

Tessa pushed her lunch tray aside and took out some books and papers. "So, that project for history class? I was thinking we could be partners and we could do it on ancient Egypt. You know, since you're like the pyramid expert around here, or whatever?"

I froze. "Tess?" I hissed through gritted teeth. "What makes you think that?"

Tessa looked confused. "You know," she began. Then her blue eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with her hand. "Sorry," she whispered. "Secrecy. Right. I forgot."

I slapped my hand to my forehead. "Remember, you can't do or say _anything_ that sounds at all suspicious."

She nodded solemnly. "Got it."

I smiled and shook my head. "Okay. Listen, I need to do something. If anyone asks where I am, you cover for me, right?"

"Um, sure?" Tessa replied.

I picked up my lunch tray and made my way over to the cafeteria doors leading outside. I waited until I was sure no teacher was watching, and then quickly slipped out.

Ditching school without getting caught was no problem. I had done it often enough in my life.

I ran to the Animorphs' school, using a hologram of a FedEx truck to disguise myself. When I got there, I turned on my regular human hologram and casually walked into their cafeteria, trying to look like I belonged there. I had attended that school in the sixth grade, and before that, the kids from the Animorphs' school and my current school had all gone to the same elementary school. I had transferred to Truman Middle at the beginning of seventh grade. But maybe no one would recognize me.

Anyways, I spotted Jake, Cassie, Marco, and Rachel by themselves at a small circular table over in a corner. As I got closer, I could make out some of their conversation.

"I tell you, girls are far too sensitive. All I did was ask Brittany out, and she slaps me across the face and tells me to get lost and get a life! What is up with that?

That was Marco, of course.

"Uh, Marco?" Rachel said with a smirk. "Just a heads up, girls don't like it when some kid she doesn't even know comes up to her, puts his arm around her, and says, 'Hey, baby, how about coming to the dance with me tonight?'"

Marco glared at her. "You know what, Rachel? You are such a-"

"Sorry to interrupt this _fascinating_ discussion," I said, sliding into an empty seat at their table. "But there's something you need to know about."

Cassie, Jake, and Rachel smiled and said hi, but Marco was not nearly so pleased.

"No!" he moaned. "We're going to have to go on a mission tonight and I'll miss my date with Brittany!"

"So you actually managed to get a date, did you, Marco?" I asked, playing along.

"No, he didn't," Jake replied. "He's just dreaming."

Marco frowned and muttered something to himself.

It was then that I discovered something shocking.

"No way! They serve pizza here now!?" I asked.

"We get Domino's pizza on the first Thursday of the month," Cassie informed me.

"Look at this!" I pointed at the 'food' (as the lunch ladies seemed to think it was) on my own tray. "Does this even look edible to you?"

"Ugh," commented Rachel.

"Hey, Rachel? You're not going to eat _both_ those slices of pizza, are you?" I asked hopefully. "I mean, it would be bad for your figure. And-"

"Here," Rachel said impatiently, handing me a slice.

"So?" asked Cassie. "What do you need to tell us, Erek?"

I chewed a bite of pizza and swallowed. "Well," I began. "If it's possible, do you think we could all meet in your barn after school?"

Marco groaned again. "Just when everything seems almost normal, the Yeerks have to go and start something again."

"Actually, it has nothing to do with the Yeerks." I told him.

"Really? What's the problem?" Rachel asked eagerly, probably assuming it had something to do with some new aliens to kick butt on.

"Well… you'll see." I glanced down at my watch. "I've got to get back now; sixth period starts in approximately 27.4 seconds." I handed the unidentifiable mush to Rachel. "Here. Thanks for the pizza."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

I entered the English classroom. The bell rang. I quickly sat down.

Mr. Ryan looked at me. "Erek. You're late. I'm sorry, but I'll have to write you up a tardy slip."

"Actually, Mr. Ryan, I was in the _classroom_ before the bell rang. So technically I wasn't tardy." I told him.

He rested his head in his hands and groaned. "Okay. Sure. Fine. Just… everybody just have a free period today. I have a headache. Just talk, or study for another class, or… or _something._"

Everybody began chatting with their friends.

Tessa turned to me. "So?"

"So, what?"

"Where were you?"

"You'll see later this afternoon," I replied.

"Um… okay. Hey, can you quiz me on Spanish? I am so not ready for that quiz on Monday."

"Okay, so what are the days of the week?" I asked her.

"Sunday, Monday, Tues-"

"In Spanish, obviously, Tessa," I sighed.

"Right. Um. Isn't one of them Domino?" she asked.

"Sunday is _Domingo_."

"Domino go?"

"No! Domingo. It rhymes with flamingo." I sighed again. "You're hopeless. Study on your own time."

I opened a pocket in my cargo shorts and pulled out the slice of pizza Rachel had given me.

Tessa's jaw dropped. "Where'd you get that?"

"Um- nowhere."

I took another slice of pizza out of another pocket and handed it to her. "Here."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

_-Meanwhile, at the Animorphs' school-_

"Hey!" shouted Marco. "Didn't I have two slices of pizza just a few minutes ago? Why do I now only have one? You all saw! I had _two_ slices earlier!"

They all looked at each other. "Erek!" they said.

"He must have stolen it as he left," Jake said.

"You can't really blame him," Cassie murmured. "Look at that stuff." She pointed to the unidentifiable mush.

"But he's an android! He doesn't even need to eat! Much less two slices of our pizza!" Marco fumed.

They thought for a moment.

"You know, you actually have a point there," Rachel said.


	12. Welcome To The World Of Insanity

Authoress's Note: Thank you KityPryde, Maj Enn, Purplestar, Riza-san, and LadyImperialdramon for your reviews. And LadyImperialdramon, if you remember, the Authoress's Note said that this story starts after #27. From there it's completely AU. So, in this universe, book #29 will never happen. Here's Chapter Twelve. Enjoy! :D

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Twelve: Welcome To The World Of Insanity

_(Tessa's POV)_

"So," I said to Erek as we walked home from school. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see," he replied. "There are some friends of mine I'd like you to meet."

When we got to our houses, I said, "Erek? Look both ways before you cross the street this time, okay?"

We both laughed and put our backpacks inside our respective houses.

"Hmm," Erek mused. "It's pretty far for you to go, and we need to get there quickly, so…" He got on his bike. "Sit on the back."

I did. Suddenly- WOOSH! We took off. _Extremely_ fast. I noticed a weird shimmer around us and assumed that Erek was projecting a hologram so that any one we passed wouldn't notice us. About thirty seconds later, we arrived at some barn at the edge of a forest.

"Okay, you can stop strangling me now," said Erek. I realized that I had my arms thrown around his neck for dear life.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly, getting off the bike. "Didn't know it was possible for a bike to go that fast."

He smiled, got off the bike, and laid it on the ground.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Cassie's barn. You're about to meet the Animorphs."

I guess I must have looked confused, because Erek laughed and said, "Oh yeah. It's about to get much, much weirder and more shocking."

I laughed, too. "After finding out that you're an android? I don't think anything could shock me ever again."

Erek smiled. "Really? What if I told you that we're dissecting frogs in science class tomorrow?"

I stared at him, shocked. "Nuh uh!"

"Yeah huh!"

"No way. You're joking, aren't you? Tell me you're just kidding. This is another one of your sick practical jokes, isn't it?"

I looked at him hopefully. My heart sank when I saw his amused expression.

"Seriously, dude. Mr. Helmick announced it in class today," he replied.

I frowned. "How come I never heard about that?"

Erek smiled and shook his head. "That would be because you were asleep."

"Oh. Good point."

We walked across a small field and into the barn. There were five kids, about my age. There was a brown-haired guy pacing back and forth. There was an African-American girl in overalls, tending to what looked like a sick raccoon. There was an oddly pretty boy stuffing his face with what I could only hope was chocolate. There was a Hispanic guy lounging on a bale of hay. And there was…

"Rachel?" I said.

"Um… hi, Tessa." Rachel replied, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"I have no idea," I admitted.

Erek looked surprised. "You two know each other?"

"Yeah, Rachel's in my gymnastics class this year," I told him. Rachel and I weren't good friends, but we said hi and chatted sometimes while we warmed up. "How do you know her?"

The other four kids looked confused and (oddly) wary.

"Who is this?" the girl I didn't know asked.

"This is my friend Tessa," Erek replied. "Tess, this is Jake, Cassie, Marco, Ax, and Tobias." He pointed to each one in turn.

When he said, "Tobias," he pointed to the rafters. A large bird, like a hawk or something, fluttered down. (Hi.)

I blinked, and shook my head a little. "Um, excuse me, but… did that bird just say hi?!"

Erek laughed again. "Told you it was gonna get even weirder."

"You weren't kidding," I muttered.

"Tessa, are you… you know… human?" asked Rachel.

"Yep," I replied. She must have been wondering if I was a Chee.

The girl named Cassie looked at Erek. "Does she know...?"

"She knows about the Chee and the Pemalites. That's all," Erek said. "I was hoping you all could tell her about the Yeerk invasion and the morphing and all that. I guessed that you would do a better job of it than me."

Now, by this time, I was completely confused and freaked out, but I told myself it couldn't be any more surprising than the whole android thing, and I forced myself not to panic.

Jake looked tired. "Can she be trusted?"

"Yes," Erek replied firmly.

"How does she know about the Chee?" asked Marco suspiciously. "Why do you want her to know about us?"

Erek sighed deeply, and reluctantly told them the events of yesterday's car crash and how he had panicked and pretended first to be unconscious, then to be somehow unhurt.

They all laughed.

"Smooth, Erek," Marco said with a sarcastic smirk. "Very quick thinking, there."

Erek scowled. "Not funny." He grew serious. "I thought Tessa should have a right to know what's happening to Earth."

"What?" I finally demanded. "I have no idea what you people are talking about. What's happening to Earth? What do you mean, morphing? What invasion? And what do you mean by, 'know about us?'"

The five kids and the bird all exchanged a glance. They leaned closer to discuss it with one another.

Finally Jake said, "Well, all right. We'll tell you. But it's kind of a long story."

So I listened as the seven of them explained everything. Jake told me how they had gotten the power to morph into any animal they 'acquired.' Rachel told me all about the Yeerks. Marco told me how the Sharing was a cover for the Yeerks and how his mother was Visser One. Cassie told me about the Hork-Bajir, the Taxxons, the Ellimist, and Crayak. Tobias told me how he had been trapped in red-tailed hawk morph, but later regained his morphing powers. Ax told me how they had rescued him from his Dome ship.

And Erek told me how the Chee had infiltrated the Sharing and how they spy on the Yeerks, since they can't physically harm them cause of their programming. I noticed the Animorphs looking at Erek a bit strangely as he finished his story, as if he had left out something important. But Erek just looked a little bit sad and looked down at the ground. I wondered what he wasn't telling me.

When they had all finished telling their parts of the story, Erek glanced at me nervously. I knew he was expecting me to completely freak like I had yesterday. Hah! I'd show him.

I forced my face into a look of complete calm and said slowly to him, "Ah. So _that's_ why you got all weird when I asked about joining that Sharing thing."

They all looked relieved, as if they had all expected me to go insane, too. I was actually surprised by how well I was taking it. Probably because after finding out Erek was an android, when he said it was getting stranger, I had been expecting something even weirder than aliens invading Earth.

I took a deep breath. "I want to see this morphing."

"Okay," Jake replied. "Ax, demorph back to Andalite."

"Yes, Prince Jake. Ake. Ay- kuh."

I watched as the odd kid's mouth disappeared, legs burst from his chest, eyes grew from the top of his head, and an extremely dangerous-looking tail emerged. Finally he was an Andalite.

They all laughed at the expression of sick fascination I had on my face as he demorphed.

"Welcome to the world of insanity," Marco announced in a perfect game-show-host imitation voice. He shook my hand. "How does it feel to officially be crazy?"


	13. Oh, The Joys Of Science

Authoress's Note: Thank you to Riza-san, Purplestar, and KityPryde for reviewing. This chapter doesn't really contribute to the plot line very much. It's just supposed to be a funny chapter. Erek is so cute in this one!! Sorry, I'm really hyper  
because yesterday I went to the book fair and they had Animorphs books! I gasped so loudly when I saw them that the people near me actually turned around to see what happened. So now I own six new Animorphs books. Yay! Oh, and this mean girl walked past while I was trying to decide which ones to get and she was like, "Animorphs. They were cool... back in the day." Can you _believe_ that?! I mean, yeah, they're like from the nineties but so what? And then she turned away so I couldn't even glare at her properly. Grr. Oh well. Anyways, ignore my rambling. I talk way too much. Enjoy the chapter! :D

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Thirteen: Oh, The Joys Of Science

_(Erek's POV)_

"Eww! Eww! Ew! Ew! Ew!"

I rolled my eyes. "Stop being so overly dramatic, Tess. It's just a frog."

We were at school the next day. Specifically, science class.

"Yeah? Well, you're not the only one who can quote Shakespeare, Erek."

I snickered. I had been randomly quoting Shakespeare all morning, just to annoy her.

"Listen to this- _'All the world's a stage.' _Therefore, the world must need drama queens." She smiled, pleased with herself, and then gagged as she caught sight of the dead frog on the dissecting tray in front of us.

"Okay, class," announced Mr. Helmick. "Does everyone have their lab aprons and gloves on? Good, now, discuss with your lab partner how you will divide up the dissecting duties."

Tessa turned to me. "_You_ will do all of the dissecting. I will watch and write down what we see on the worksheet."

I shrugged. "Fine."

"All right. Now, make the first incision by carefully using the scalpel to cut the frog down the middle, like so."

Mr. Helmick demonstrated. I did as he said. Tessa watched.

"I thought you couldn't hurt living things?" she said.

"Um, Tessa? It's _dead._"

"But you're hurting its dignity! If _you_ were a dead frog, would you want someone cutting you up and looking at you?"

I stared at her and shook my head. "You are willing to say anything to get out of this, aren't you?"

As the dissection continued, Tessa continued to say, "Ew! Ew! Ew!" as she drew diagrams of the different frog organs and such on the worksheet.

"Class? When we cut into this next part, there may be liquid inside your frog. It's okay. Most vertebrates have this, to protect their internal organs from injury. However, it gets in the way. So I'm going to give you all eyedroppers to remove the fluids. _YOU WILL __NOT__, I REPEAT, __NOT__ SQUIRT THE FLUIDS AT YOUR LAB PARTNER._ Is this understood?" He handed out the eyedroppers.

I started removing the frog juice. But just then, Tessa made a joke about Mr. Helmick's frighteningly ugly bow ties. I laughed and accidentally squeezed the eyedropper. Frog juice squirted onto Tessa's desk. She pulled her hand away and made a little squeaking noise.

I grinned. I couldn't resist.

I got another eyedropper-full of frog juice and squirted it at her. She screamed and ducked. It arched harmlessly over her head. SPLAT! A puddle on the ground.

She tried to wrestle the eyedropper out of my hand so that she could get back at me, when suddenly Mr. Helmick appeared out of nowhere (or so it seemed). Teachers have a creepy ability to do that.

"Erek? I certainly hope you aren't squirting amphibious biological fluids at your lab partner. Do I have to send you to detention?"

Tessa's eyes widened. If I went to detention, she would have to dissect the frog herself.

"No, no, Mr. Helmick," she protested. "He wasn't. I swear."

"Then why did you scream?" asked Mr. Helmick.

"I screamed because… because, for a moment, I was just… overwhelmed with _passion_ for science. I mean, this dissecting, this could possibly be _the_ most exciting day of my entire life. It's just so… fun."

I made a snorking sound as I tried to muffle my laughter, so I suddenly began coughing very loudly.

Mr. Helmick looked at me suspiciously. "Well, all right. The joys of science _are_ amazing, aren't they?"

"Absolutely, Mr. Helmick," Tessa said with a straight face.

As soon as he left, we burst out laughing. But then Tessa glared at me.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly.

"Okay, class. See this yellow tissue right here?" Mr. Helmick said. "That's the fat deposits."

It was bright yellow and squiggly.

"You know, that reminds me of something," I said to Tessa. "But I can't think of what…"

"Sick! It looks like the school's macaroni and cheese!" Tessa squealed.

I snapped my fingers. "That's it!"

"That is so _nasty_..."

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

_-Later, at lunch period-_

Tessa and I went into the cafeteria, bought our lunches, and sat down.

Tessa stared at her tray. "Mac-" She faltered. "Mac and cheese."

I took a huge bite to gross her out as she watched in horror. "Yum, this is good!" I said cheerfully. (A lie, of course. It was _disgusting._)

Tessa choked. "Excuse me…" She ran out of the cafeteria. I took a huge gulp of Mountain Dew to wash away the taste. A few minutes later, Tessa returned. Her face looked a bit pale.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. Again.

She glared at me.

I beamed.

She sighed and cracked a smile.


	14. Accident Prone

Authoress's Note: Thank you to Maj Enn, KityPryde, Riza-san, and Purplestar for reviewing. And today we have a very special announcement. _My Best Friend Is An Android_ now officially has 50 reviews! Woot! :D If you read this chapter and review it , then I'll have even _more_ reviews. (wink wink nudge nudge) :D This chapter is also intended to be mostly humorous. Poor Erek... :) And, I am sad to say that this story has only 16 chapters. Some of you may have known that, others may not have. But don't worry, it's going to be a series, so it's not going to be finished forever. But now I have to do the countdown thing like in the real Animorphs books. _...it's countdown time...only three more chapters til the end... _:D

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Fourteen: Accident-prone

_(Tessa's POV)_

We were at Erek's house after school that day. Supposedly working on our history project. However…

"I want to see it! I want to see this underground park of yours," I begged.

Erek looked uncomfortable. "But, Tess. The other Chee don't know that you know about us."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because… because I haven't told them. They can't know that I let _another_ human know about the Chee. Certain people (coughcoughMariacough) would be really angry with me."

I pouted. "But, Erek, you were really mean today," I whined in the most annoying way possible. "You should let me see this park to make up for it."

"So if I show you, you won't hold a grudge about the frog juice?" Erek asked.

I had to think about that for a moment.

"Um, no. I'll still hold it against you forever. However, I might _begin_ to forgive you if you show me the park," I teased. "By the way, that reminds me. I still haven't completely forgiven you for the whole you-not-telling-me-you-were-an-android thing. You must give me a piece of gum if you want full forgiveness."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? Well maybe _I_ still haven't forgiven _you_ from the time you threw up on me in the fourth grade."

"Hey, that's not fair; it's not as if it was my fault!" I protested. "Cause I was already feeling a little sick and then I had to eat the school's nasty food and then they made us have PE right after lunch! I couldn't help it!"

"Well, maybe I couldn't _help_ but squirt frog juice at you after you made such a big deal over it," Erek countered.

Hmm. He _did_ have sort of a point there.

"Okay, how about we both just forgive each other for everything and move on," I said. Erek nodded and we shook on it.

Silence for a moment. Then…

"Um… can I still have a piece of gum?" I asked tentatively. "Cause I'm all out."

He sighed, pulled a pack of gum out of his pocket, and handed me a piece.

"Thanks," I said, shoving it in my mouth. "So…?"

Erek groaned. "All right, all right! Ugh."

We walked downstairs to the basement.

"Wow," I said, shaking my head. "Just think of all the times we must have come down here when we were in first grade or so, exploring or something. And I had no idea what was underneath this."

He smiled at me. Then the floor began to drop suddenly. About five stories down, it stopped. One wall opened to reveal a hallway. Erek and I walked through it.

"Wow!" I exclaimed again.

In front of us stretched a beautiful park. Trees, grass, flowers everywhere. A clear blue stream flowed lazily through the center. Squirrels chattered in the trees above us, bees buzzed around, and butterflies floated happily. It was filled with maybe a hundred dogs, all running around and playing in sheer joy.

And there were about five Chee, like Erek. One of them came over to us. A hologram appeared around him. It was Erek's 'father.'

"Tessa?" he asked.

I nodded and said brightly, "Hey, Mr. King!"

He turned to Erek. "She found out?"

Erek nodded slowly.

Mr. King smirked, then tried to look sympathetic as he said, "Well, make sure Maria doesn't see you- er, too late."

The other four Chee were approaching us.

"Um, I have to be somewhere else right now," Mr. King said, and took off. I didn't blame him. The Chee in the front looked seriously steamed.

"EREK!" she screeched, as her hologram (an eighty-year-old woman) snapped into place.

Erek flinched. "I know, Maria, I know!" he began, but Maria cut him off.

"How did she find out? Just please tell me it wasn't another-"

"There was a car crash," I explained. "He was crossing the street and suddenly this car came and…" I trailed off as I noticed Erek glaring at me. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"A CAR CRASH? A CAR CRASH?" Maria exploded. "AGAIN? You moron, how many times do we all have to tell you to LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE YOU CROSS THE STREET?"

The other three Chee smirked a little bit. Erek looked embarrassed.

"How many accidents have you been in, Erek?" she continued. "How many times have you almost given away or actually given away the secret of the Chee? Remember Egypt? Remember the block of limestone those slaves were lowering off the pyramid when _you_ got in the way? Do you have any idea how hard it was to cover that up? And, as I recall, you were run over by a chariot in ancient Rome, a cart in Shakespearian-era England-"

"The cart wasn't my fault," Erek interrupted. "Those kids pushed me."

"And you were hit by a _train_ in the 1870s! Remember that?"

Erek flinched hard. He rubbed his arm. "Somewhat," he said. "I remember getting hit, but right after that everything went black. I woke up like a week later."

"And what about 1908? The Model T car came out and what did you do? Run your brand new one into a lamppost. And lately you've been even worse. Remember your previous life? The first car crash, you had to fake a head injury and live in a mental hospital for a year."

"That was actually pretty fun," Erek said.

"And then _another _car crash. You flipped the car completely over, Erek! You had to pretend to die. And what about when the Animorphs found out about us? You were hit by a bus! And now this?" Maria shook her head and glared at him. "You shouldn't even be allowed to pass as human, in my opinion."

Erek looked at the ground. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "But it's not really my fault if I'm like the most accident-prone person in the world, you know."

Meanwhile, during this whole conversation, I had been cracking up so hard I could barely breathe. I rested my hand on Erek's shoulder to keep myself standing.

Erek gave me a dirty look. "Shut. Up. Or. Else."

He stepped back and I collapsed on the ground, unable to stop laughing at him. I didn't think he appreciated it very much, but oh well.

Maria glanced down at me lying on the ground, made a face like she was disgusted by Erek and me, shuddered and left. The other three Chee quickly followed her.

After a few more moments of uncontrollable laughing, I finally was able to stand up.

Erek looked at me, annoyed. "Are you quite finished?"

"Yeah," I replied, and then lowered my voice to a whisper. "Dude, she is _scary._"

"Tell me about it," he grumbled. "In my previous life, she was posing as my mother."

I laughed again. Erek frowned.


	15. A New Mission

Authoress's Note: Thank you to Maj Enn, KityPryde, Riza-san, critic, and Purplestar for reviewing. :D_...only two more chapters til the end... _(Fifteen and Sixteen) Anyways, enjoy! :D

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Fifteen: A New Mission

_(Erek's POV)_

"So, you were hit by a train?" asked Tessa curiously. We were sitting under one of the trees in the park.

I nodded and turned off my hologram. I showed her a place on my arm where there was a band of just steel, without white patches. "That's where they reattached my arm."

"Wow. Did it hurt?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I don't really know. I was unconscious."

"How did you get into so many accidents?" Tessa asked.

I shrugged again and turned my hologram back on. "I… I really don't know."

Tessa smirked, and I could see she was about to make some smart remark.

Quickly trying to change the subject, I said, "In my previous life Maria was my mother and Daniel and Nick were my brothers. Then I got into those accidents and had to 'die.' So then I started this life."

Tessa frowned. "So… your previous life was your uncle?"

I nodded. "Last time I was also called Erek King."

"How does that work, anyways? With the names, I mean."

"We usually keep the same first names, but make up different last names," I told her. "Sometimes I spell it different, like Erik or Eric."

"Oh." Tessa looked as if she were about to ask another question- apparently this was fascinating to her- but then I noticed Lourdes approaching us. She must have just come down to the park.

Lourdes stopped and looked at Tessa, then at me, questioning.

I took a deep breath. "Tessa, this is Lourdes. Lourdes, this is Tessa, yes she is a human, yes she found out about the Chee, yes I got into _another_ car accident, and yes I am an idiot, but you don't have to rub it in."

Lourdes giggled. "Another accident? You _are_ an idiot."

"So I've been told," I said dryly.

Tessa laughed.

Lourdes's expression turned serious. "Erek, you need to hear what Jenny and I found out. Apparently soon there's going to be an important meeting for only the very high-ranking Controllers. Like, only the really, really high-ranking Controllers. No one but the people invited are even supposed to know about it, but we overheard. It's extremely confidential."

I nodded thoughtfully. "They wouldn't be that secretive unless something major was going on."

"Exactly what I thought," agreed Lourdes. "What ever this is, it's going to be big. We need to find out what's up."

I waited.

She hesitated.

"So? What's the problem?" I asked.

"The thing is, Jenny has that seventh-grade class trip, Daniel has an important meeting at his work, I'm signed up to go to the Yeerk pool, and we all know Maria and them aren't going to help us. So it looks like you're going to be on your own."

"Oh," I said.

"Yeah," said Lourdes.

"Well, I'll manage," I said breezily. "When is this meeting?"

"Day after tomorrow," Lourdes replied.

"Well, it'd probably be too risky to try to go to the meeting hidden in some hologram, I guess," I mused. "So maybe I'll set up a holo surveillance system tomorrow night?"

She nodded. "That'd probably be best. And you should alert the Animorphs. Whatever you will find out will likely end up in a mission for them."

"Yeah."

Lourdes smiled at us. "Okay. Later, Erek. See you, Tessa." She turned and left.

Tessa looked after her, then turned to me, wide-eyed. "How the heck do you pretend to be a human, go to school, do homework, go skateboarding, practice playing the drums, pretend to be a Controller, go to the Yeerk pool, help out with the Sharing, _and_ do all this spy stuff?"

I shrugged. "Cause I'm awesome, that's how."

Tessa snorted. "You really do have an ego problem."

"Do not."

She pushed me lightly. "You do too. But hey, you're not anywhere near as bad as that Marco kid."

I laughed. "I doubt _anybody_'s as stuck on himself as Marco. Come on, I need to go tell the Animorphs about all this. You wanna come?"

"Sure."

We went back up out of the park, got our skateboards, and skated to Cassie's barn. I assumed they would be there, talking about something Animorph-ish.

Yes, I know that's not a word.

"Guess what, guys?" I announced as Tessa and I walked into the barn.

Marco jumped to his feet and waved his arm in the air wildly. "Ooh, ooh! I know! You have bad news, right?"

"How did you guess?" I asked, pretending to be shocked.

"I have psychic powers," Marco replied.

"Uh-huh," Rachel said skeptically.

"No, really!" he protested. "See, I can read minds. I predict that Erek's about to tell us some information that will force us to go on yet another insane suicide trip into the unknown."

"Not quite," I said.

"So?" asked Jake. "What's the mission, Erek?"

I smiled.

I love being a spy.


	16. Whether You Like It Or Not

Authoress's Note: Thank you to Maj Enn, Purplestar, Riza-san, Tsaukpaetra, and KityPryde for reviewing! Here it is, guys. The final chapter... (sob) :( But, on the bright side, it _will_ be a series, as I have said before. As soon as I finish writing the sequel, I will PM everybody who ever reviewed this story with a notice about when it will show up on fanfiction. (I still haven't decided what to call it.) So, don't worry people! I printed this story out and gave it to my English teacher to read. She said that it was really good and I must have had a lot of fun writing it. She was right... it's been a lot of fun. A big thank you to everyone who ever reviewed. Okay, enough with all the mush. Enjoy!

My Best Friend Is An Android

Chapter Sixteen: Whether You Like It Or Not

_(Tessa's POV)_

Erek told the Animorphs everything that the other Chee, Lourdes, had told him (except for the part about him being an idiot).

"So I guess this time I'm going in alone," he finished.

Jake looked very serious and leader-like. "So, what you're telling us is… you're not going to be allowed to attend this meeting and find out what it's about?"

"No, it's only for the top Controllers," Erek told him. Then he grinned. "Jake, we only get maybe half of our information from posing as Controllers. The rest we get from bugging meetings, tapping phone lines and other communications, and, well, generally just creeping around eavesdropping like spies do in the movies."

"Sweet," Rachel said.

"Wait a minute: you said, 'Daniel, Lourdes, and Jenny are all busy,'" Cassie spoke up. "You mean there's only four of you that have been infiltrating the Sharing this whole time?"

"Yep," said Erek.

"Man. You guys are good," Marco said.

"I know," Erek replied. "Anyways, whatever information we find out will probably turn into a mission for you guys."

Marco groaned.

Meanwhile, during this whole conversation, I had been debating with myself over whether or not I should speak up. Finally, I decided to go for it.

"I want to help you guys!" I blurted.

(What?) Ax started laughing. (You, a human female, with no morphing technology?) He laughed again.

I frowned. "You don't think humans can fight without morphing then, Ax?"

(Of course not,) he scoffed.

"Hmm. Interesting."

I paced back and forth slowly, as if I were thinking about that. Suddenly, without warning, I whirled around, launching myself into one of those flying kicks I used to do when I still did tae kwon doe.

SMACK! Ax's head swung to the side as my Converse sneaker connected with the side of his face. I pushed off, flipped, and landed in a crouch. FWAAP! Ax's tail blade was at my throat in an instant.

I have to admit it. I was _terrified._ But I suppressed the urge to panic and lifted my chin, putting some distance between myself and the blade. I looked Ax straight in his main eyes and tried to look like I wasn't afraid, even though I was.

Ax smiled at me with his eyes. He pulled back his tail blade and offered a hand to help me up. (You would not last five of your seconds in a battle with an Andalite,) he told me.

"Everyone's seconds, Ax," Marco muttered.

(Wow, Ax, she actually got one in on you,) Tobias said.

(She got lucky,) Ax sniffed, helping me to my feet. He was trying to act like it was no big deal, but I could tell he was impressed. (What do you call that method of fighting? I would like to learn it, so that I do not feel so defenseless while I am in human morph.)

I smiled. "It's called tae kwon doe, Ax. I used to take lessons, but I stopped because it was too hard to do it along with school and gymnastics. Maybe I could teach you sometime, if you really want."

Ax nodded. (Perhaps you could be a good warrior, Tessa.)

"Umm… thanks," I said. "I guess."

"But what do you mean, Tessa?" Rachel asked. "You can't stand up to attacking Hork-Bajir without morphing powers. And it's not like we could give them to you. Elfangor's ship was destroyed. I assume that the blue box was, too."

"Actually, I wasn't even talking about fighting," I said. "I don't really think I could fight. I just wanted to show Ax that humans aren't completely defenseless. But what I really meant when I said I wanted to help was helping Erek."

"What?" Erek looked confused.

"You said you're going in alone tomorrow, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, I could be your backup. I could help you spy on the Yeerks."

Silence for a moment. Erek just stared at me.

"I mean, obviously I wouldn't be able to pretend to be a Controller, since I'm not an android. But I could help with the other things. Like what you're doing tomorrow." I looked around at them hopefully.

Erek looked thoughtful. "Maybe… maybe you could."

Tobias looked hard at me with his piercing hawk eyes. (You do know that there's no go-backs, don't you?)

"Yeah," Marco agreed, serious for once. "Once you join this war- whether you're a soldier or a spy- there's no getting out. Whether you like it or not, you're in."

"Are you sure you want to join?" Jake asked me.

I thought about that for a moment. I thought about how people are enslaved by the Yeerks. I thought about Marco's mom and Jake's brother. I thought about Elfangor, father of Tobias and brother of Ax; how he had been murdered by Visser Three.

I looked up to meet each of their gazes. "I'm sure."

Yeah. Whether I liked it or not, I was in.


End file.
